In the spring of 2003, three young University of Southern California cinematography majors journeyed to Africa in search of a story. What they found there would change their lives forever.

What started out as a film project about northern Uganda transformed into much more when these men discovered a tragedy that simultaneously disgusted and inspired them, a tragedy in which children are both the weapons and victims.

After returning to the United States, the three men created the documentary “Invisible Children: Rough Cut,” a film that exposes the tragic realities of northern Uganda’s night commuters and child soldiers.

Uganda has been in turmoil for 24 years, causing it to be deemed Africa’s longest running war.

The documentary was originally shown only to the family and friends of the filmmakers, but has now been seen by millions of people, according to invisiblechildren.com. The non-profit Invisible Children, Inc. was created in answer to peoples’ question of ‘how can I help?’”

Tuesday night the MU chapter of Invisible Children held a free screening of the documentary and bake sale at Waters Auditorium.

“The part I love about this organization is that it is totally geared toward my college-aged and young adult generation. The films are cool, upbeat and not what you expect from a documentary,” said Annie Bastida, founder and co-president of the MU chapter of Invisible Children. “Their means of communication and awareness is technologically based using Facebook and Youtube and other tools that we use everyday to get the word out around the world at lightning-speed.”

According to Bastida, the chapter at MU averaged 10 people at their meetings last year but has since grown tremendously: now averaging over 40 people at their weekly meetings, over 80 at their first screening, and 300 on their Facebook group and listserv.

“We’ve got a lot of potential, but it’s hard to get such a large community all rallied behind one cause. We spread awareness through screenings of the films, fundraise, created our own apparel, and are staying in tune with the political side of IC. We have written letters to our Senators, signed the petition for the bill, and informed as many people as possible about this cause,” said Bastida.

A big focus for the chapter this semester is the Schools for Schools Competition.

“We’re paired up with a school in Uganda, Gulu Senior Secondary. We have 100 days (until December 18th) to raise as much money as possible for them. We’re also competing against other schools in the Midwest,” Bastida said. “If we have the most money, the most books or the most creative idea to raise money, we get to send someone from Mizzou to our school in Uganda to meet the kids that we raised the money for.”

The chapter has experimented in a variety of ways to raise money for the competition. They are holding a book drive that is taking place in the schools of journalism, health professions, nursing, education and engineering in addition to the residence halls and the Textbook Game store downtown.

“We have had bake sales, sold t-shirts, car decals, tickets to a local comedy club, having murder mystery dinner parties, and a benefit concert on December 6, at the Underground Cafe at 7,” Bastida said.

“Use your talents to get the word out there about our cause,” Braden Schatsiek, co-president of the MU chapter of Invisible Children, told students.

“I hope people come away with the fact that they can actually do something about this situation by getting involved with the chapter here or by writing a letter to their Congressman asking that something be done about this,” Schatsiek said.

According to Invisible Children Roadie, Kaitlin Orner, Clare McCaskill has not signed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009, a bill asking the current administration to devise a strategy to end the war in Uganda.

“Your voice is powerful,” Orner said. “One person can affect change in the world.”

Thanks to new MU research on increasing the nutritional value of ice cream, you can no longer feel so guilty about eating that whole tub of Ben & Jerry’s.

For more than a century, ice cream researchers at MU have helped develop and manufacture the cold treat. According to a news release, these researchers have added another task to their list of goals: making ice cream a “functional” food with nutrients such as fiber, antioxidants and pro-biotics.

Including such nutrients in ice cream can improve intestinal strength and digestive health, said Ingolf Gruen, MU professor of food chemistry and ice cream researcher with the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources. However, different flavors are associated with some of these nutrients that might affect how the ice cream tastes.

For example, the research team is currently experimenting with the extraction of açai berry, a fruit rich in antioxidants. Gruen said that although the berry doesn’t have an unpleasant flavor, its taste is unfamiliar to consumers. The goal is to make ice cream ingredients that are healthy “more pleasant and more recognizable,” he said.

It’s also best to stick with your basic flavors, Gruen said.

“Whenever there’s something else that consumers don’t recognize, they become suspicious,” he said. “It’s best to use something generic.”

Gruen said the research team hopes to have a prototype ready for people to try in six months and to be finished with their development in the next two years.

MU’s chapter of the National Science Teachers Association hosted “Mizzou Night at the Youzeum” Wednesday night to raise money and awareness for Columbia’s Youzeum.

The Youzeum is Columbia’s first science museum; it opened May 2008. According to Dr. Debbie Hanuscin, the sponsor of NSTA at Mizzou, because the Youzeum opened during difficult economic times, it hasn’t received the business it hoped for.

NSTA at MU was founded in 2003 and has about 75 members. Dr. Hanuscin said that many students who join the organization do not come in thinking they will teach science, but are influenced by the group.

“Dr. Hanuscin is our science methods teacher and she told us we should all join and that it’s a great opportunity,” said Laura Handrahan, a junior at MU.

The organization holds two big events per year, one in the fall and one in the spring. Hosting “Mizzou Night at the Youzeum” was the organization’s fall event.

“The Youzeum is a great resource but we realize a lot of people from Mizzou had never been here and didn’t know what it was so we thought we could help raise awareness and some funds for the Youzeum,” Dr. Hanuscin said. “We basically do the whole advertising campaign and then get together door prizes and encourage people to come out since its just a Mizzou night only, they’re normally not open right now so it’s a special event to increase awareness of all the awesome things they have going on.”

The event allowed MU students and faculty to visit the Youzeum at night, when it is not usually open, and pay $5 admission instead of $8. All of the exhibits that are normally open during the Youzeum’s usual hours were open, which are mostly interactive.

“I think it’s really cool,” said Kayla Schultz, a member of NSTA at MU. “It’s the first time I’ve been here.”

Several NSTA members went to volunteer at the event, but many more went and brought friends to simply explore and raise funds for the science museum.

“I feel disgusting. I feel gross,” said Kristen Baker, a buyer for TigerTech, from behind the cashier desk. She wasn’t the only one feeling the heat. TigerTech had been packed with over 150 men (and a few women) for the past four hours, most there to participate in TigerTech’s first video game tournament.

Baker said TigerTech sold 170 copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – 130 for the Xbox 360 and 40 for the PlayStation 3 – from midnight until 1 a.m. She placed an order for 100 more copies before she left the bottom floor of MU’s bookstore, which was hot and musty, the air charged with testosterone-induced competition.

The Tournament

• Lasted from 8 p.m. Monday until midnight on Tuesday
• Held to promote a midnight release party of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which was released and sold at TigerTech after the event
• 32 teams, consisting of four people each, played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, a first-person war simulating shooter developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision Publishing, Inc. on four PlayStation 3 systems and four Xbox 360 systems
• Eight televisions were used – one for each game system.
• The winning team received a free copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• The second place team received 10 percent off Modern Warfare 2

The Rules

• Teams were split for two-on-two rounds of Team Deathmatch, with each half of a team playing two separate matches against another team
• Each round had a 10-minute time limit and each kill was worth 10 points, kept count by the game
• At the end of each 10-minute round, the scores for each half of the team were added up
• Winners moved on to the next round, the losers were eliminated

A crowd of spectators watched as teams played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on the Xbox 360s

Crowds gathered around the TV screens to witness the virtual destruction of each team. Although excitement was in the air, the atmosphere was intense as each player furiously flicked thumb sticks and mashed triggers on controllers with precision — gunshots and weapon reloads echoing the presses onscreen.

The final round required both halves of the last two teams to play two, 10-minute matches — one on the 360 and one on the PS3. No one on Team 20, which was affectionately called Team Xbox by various members of the TigerTech staff, had played Modern Warfare on the PS3 before. This didn’t slow down their performance.

After four hours of competitive virtual warfare among the players, Team 20 beat Team NPH for the win just seconds after the clock struck midnight.

Brad Puff, Alex Blackmon, Rick McDonald and Keith McDonald comprised Team 20.

Team 20 - (from left) Brad Puff, Alex Blackmon, Keith McDonald and Rick McDonald (photo courtesy of John Adams, assistant manager of TigerTech)

Puff and Blackmon, roommates at MU, found Keith on Gamebattles, through a search of the Columbia area. Puff said he randomly sent Keith a message asking if he was interested because they needed two more people for their team. Keith and his cousin Rick both agreed to play, and Team 20 was born.

Puff and Blackmon had never met, nor had played video games with Keith or Rick before the tournament.

“I had to call him when I was standing a foot away from him because I didn’t know it was him,” Puff said about Keith.

Before exchanging handshakes, Puff and Blackmon briefly discussed the chances of skipping class Tuesday.

“I’ve got accounting at 8 a.m. It’s probably just not going to happen,” Puff said with a laugh.

The internet is revolutionizing the way students learn. But just how revolutionary is it?

Web sites such as Koofers, Cramster and Course Hero are changing the way students prepare for class and tests. By signing up for the services provided at Web sites and other like them, students can access flash cards for different courses, rate their professors and (gasp) look at past exams.

Obviously many students may find this beneficial, especially the day before the big midterm that’s worth 325% of their grades. But what does this mean for traditional means of learning? Does putting the exams on a website for everyone to freely access undermine the purpose of testing in the first place?

Well, let’s look at the pros:

• students all over the United States become better connected through common study and there’s something to be said for free exchange of information
• students become more proactive in how they learn
• websites like these force professors who recycle their quizzes and exams to become more creative and update every so often

Now let’s look at the cons:

• everyone is allowed to contribute to these websites; much like Wikipedia, you never know whether you’ve got the right answer
• there’s a higher chance of cheating and plagiarism
• it might be undermining the whole purpose of examination in the first place; one could argue that students don’t really learn anything; they’re simply memorizing and regurgitating

These resources generally cater to the needs of math and science students with courses that are less subjective and more concrete. Nevertheless, it’s changing the face of collegiate learning.

Several programs on MU’s campus have been created to help students with personal problems.

One such program is the At Risk Behaviors Committee, whose purpose is to provide coordinated response to distressed students.

The committee was created partly due to violence on other college campuses in recent years, such as the Virginia Tech shooting, said Cathy Scroggs, chairwoman of the committee and vice chancellor for student affairs.

Another reason for its creation is that people from several different departments had begun noticing the same concerning behavior in particular individuals. The committee makes it possible to centralize concerns from people of different university venues, Scroggs said.

“It gives people a sense of who they know to contact,” she said.

Once a concern is raised to the committee, two mental health professionals help to determine the appropriate course of action. Because the actual individual issues can range from someone having a rough day to someone exhibiting signs of severe depression, the mental health professionals help to distinguish problems that require intervention from those that do not.

If intervention is recommended, the response might be a residence hall staff member asking a student if they are going to counseling or requiring a student to go to the hospital and contacting the student’s parents.

“The most important issue is to solve the problem in order for the student to be successful,” Scroggs said.

The committee has met every two weeks since the fall semester of 2007.

“We manage to have enough to talk about,” she said.

It is difficult to determine the success of the committee, Scroggs said, because one cannot know what would’ve happened had intervention not taken place.

“In the long run, it keeps individuals and the campus safe,” Scroggs said.

Another resource available on campus for distressed individuals is the MU Counseling Center.

For currently enrolled students, the counseling center can provide individual therapy, group therapy and some couples counseling, said Pam Darby-Mullins, programming coordinator for Student Services at the counseling center.

“We see a variety of presenting concerns that range from day-to-day stresses to ongoing mental health concerns,” Darby-Mullins said. “The top reasons students have for coming in usually are stress, anxiety, depression and relationship concerns.”

Group therapy topics differ from semester to semester, but usually include relationship concerns, stress management, coping skills and eating and body image issues.

Undergraduate and graduate students are eligible for up to 12 sessions per academic year of individual or couples counseling, according to the counseling center’s Web site. There is no limit for group therapy sessions.

The center provides crisis walk-in services and consultations from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Faculty, staff and students also can call the center during those hours for consultation.

The center is also involved with outreach programs on campus that typically include presentations to students on various mental health topics, tabling at various information fairs and providing emotional support at events on campus.

Darby-Mullins said there is no cost for any of these services beyond what the student already pays in student fees.

Faculty Code conflict opens UW to potential lawsuits [The Daily of the University of Washington]

Policy Restricts Greek Funds [Emory Wheel, Emory University]

Students Contest Off-Campus Housing Policies [The Occidental Weekly, Occidental College]

Sharing is (not) caring [The Gonzaga Bulletin, Gonzaga University]

University Looks at Alternatives for Replacing Kannam [The Wesleyan Argus, Wesleyan University]

MU faculty, administrators and staff received a message from President Gary Forsee on Friday.

It follows:

Let me begin this note by thanking each of you individually and collectively for your efforts across our four campuses and system office to support our mission of teaching, service, research and economic development for the State of Missouri. Your work should make everyone proud of what has been, and will continue to be achieved by our university in these challenging and changing times. While the daily headlines continue to portray a struggling recovery on Main Street, I want us to focus on our role in the recovery of the economy and our continued importance to Missouri as the most significant force in higher education in our state.

With that in mind, I want to let you know that I will be conducting Town Hall meetings on each of our four campuses and the system office during the next 30 days. I want to be sure we have ample opportunity to engage in a discussion about balancing how we plan to deal with ongoing financial challenges with the important actions we need to focus on to ensure our continued strength for the next decade!

I invite you to read my recent comments to the Board of Curators, along with accompanying slides. In addition you may wish to see a letter distributed to important statewide leaders that accompanied these remarks. You will see in these documents a number of key points:

— Discussion of the looming budget challenge for 2011 and 2012, where permanent adjustments to our state support of 5-10% would not be surprising.  As you know, last week Gov. Nixon announced significant cuts in this year’s state government budget.  While the university’s core budget has been protected from cuts because we agreed to hold tuition flat, nearly $5 million in cuts to programs outside of the university’s core budget (from our hospital operations and statewide TeleHealth program to the MOREnet network serving schools and public libraries, etc.) reflect the state’s budget challenges ahead

— Recaps of all we have taken on thus far to remain as much in control of this situation as possible-including more than $60 million in recurring and one-time savings that were achieved last year

— Challenge for several new initiatives we should consider

— Calls to examine some historic paradigms encompassed in a national discussion that is under way about the value and cost of higher education.

I ask you to review this information, and plan to attend a Town Hall. Shared governance, open communication and dialogue should help mark our path forward.  The budget challenges we face by themselves are likely of a once-in-a-generation magnitude. But the potential sea-changes confronting us on all sides will certainly be a test for all of us and require a heightened level of focus, because we don’t look to just maintain our position but to enhance it as we work our way through these issues. I look forward to our discussions at the upcoming Town Hall meetings.  In the meantime, if my attached comments spark any ideas and suggestions, I invite you to e-mail me. I will do my best to personally respond to your questions and concerns as soon as possible.

Sincerely, Gary D. Forsee President

I’m working on an article for the Missourian about Scott Standifer, who recently developed a guide for vocational rehabilitation counselors to help adults with autism find jobs. Standifer, a clinical associate professor with MU’s School of Health Professions, wanted to write this guide because of the lack of information on the subject.

While researching for this article, I saw that Judy Miles, a professor of child health genetics, will be speaking about how autism affects the social behavior and language development of children. At this talk Saturday, Miles will share what researchers are learning about genetic and non-genetic causes of autism and how this research relates to treatment. I thought this would be an interesting forum that could provide a different perspective on autism, the future for children with autism and the information I have gathered for my story so far.

Additionally, it could be beneficial to others, especially those who know someone with autism.

The event is free and open to the public. Coffee and bagels will be served at 10:00 a.m. with the talk starting at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the Monsanto Auditorium of the MU Life Sciences Center.

For more information, visit http://satscience.missouri.edu/.

Drilling into the Missouri School of Journalism’s historic archway will begin Wednesday, said Brian Brooks, associate dean for undergraduate studies and administration. Water leakage at the archway’s base and seepage into a classroom, necessitate repairs that will involve digging into the foundation.

Once drilling begins, the archway should be closed for no longer than a week,  said Brooks.

“We’re hoping to reopen the archway on Tuesday, Nov. 10,” said Pat Cloyd, administrative assistant. “And we’re hoping they can do that – that there won’t be any unforeseen problems.”

Part of Walter Williams Hall, completed in 1937, the archway is rich in tradition, history and correlating student myth. For coverage of the repairs of and further insight into this highly photographed, highly superstitious campus landmark, go to ColumbiaMissourian.com Wednesday.